Substrate- it's the same as what's suitable for hamsters mostly. Although rats do suffer more from respiratory illnesses and therefore most people tend not to use sawdust even if it’s dust extracted. I did sometimes with my rats when I was waiting for my other substrate to be delivered and things like that - it’s one of them – use it all the time and it may lead to problems, use it sometimes (because you’ve run out of other substrate, not had time to order etc) and it’s fine. Dirty cages lead to respiratory conditions more so than any particular substrate and that’s across all animals.
Paper based betting – finacard, aspen, megazorb, pepper pellets etc all completely fine. But do use something different in their litter tray and always do that and then they’ll know to poop/pee in there. When I first got them – for the first 2 weeks I would move their poops and any wet bedding in there. If you put tissue paper on the hammocks and then they pee, then move the tissue paper or a little bit of it onto the hammock – each day and eventually they’ll be like – ok we pee and poop there. Once the alpha of the group knows that, he will make sure all the other rats do the same.
Fleece is a personal choice. I did use fleece – if you make your own cage liners and hammocks, it won’t cost you all that much – if you get them made specially (with the proper absorbent backing etc) the outlay cost may be expensive but will save you in the long run. However, you might have rats that destroy fleece. My girls destroyed all the hammocks and fleece, my boys never did.
So personally I’d start with a substrate and hammocks and then if your rats aren’t chewing up all their hammocks– you can make the switch to fleece.
Good idea to leave a container in the cage for digging – if you have a big cage like the critter nation. Again my girls like to dig, my boys preferred to lounge around – although they did enjoy digging about in soil as part of a free range activity.
Cages:
I think in the US – the big cages are the Midwest Critter Nation, which you can get in a single or a double =
https://www.amazon.com/MidWest-Critt.../dp/B001NJ0DAY
Other cages are the furet tower (nightmare for cleaning), the savic freddy 2 or savic freddy 3 and also the Mamble cage on zooplus – that’s a really decent cheap cage.
This also looks good and much cheaper, maybe read the reviews on amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Prevue-Hendryx-485-Products- 6&keywords=RAT+CAGES
This is the cage I had:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Small-Ani...savic+rat+cage
Here is a link to a rat cage calculator which will help you determine how many rats you could possibly have in one cage – it’s really useful as a starting guide while you’re figuring it all out.
Ratty Corner Cage Calculator
With rats you will be spot cleaning every day and doing a thorough clean every single week. In order to make that job as easy and effortless as possible - cages like the critter nation with huge doors just cuts the time down massively. Cleaning used to take me 3 or 4 hours when I had a cage you had to take apart to get into it. With the savic royal sweet (UK equivalent of the critter nation) it would take me an hour. It was so quick and easy.
Also I’d go for babies while you’re starting out. Check the personality of the older guy and the reason he is up for rehoming but personally I’d have some reservations. Rats are like dogs – you put in what you get out, but like adopting an older dog – most have issues, that may have been ok with the previous owner but isn’t with you.
But then again, I had that with Toby, it could be fine – Toby was beautiful, his brother died though. The family then returned Toby to the breeder so he could have friends, as they didn’t want to get more rats. No foul play, they did absolutely everything right. I brought him home with me with 2 of his baby nephew’s – who I’d gone to collect – Robin and Thomas and Toby was the most beautiful affectionate rat ever. He’d been very very well loved in his previous home.
Think of rats like mini dogs - they are as equally intelligent, need the same amount of time - except they will sleep all day while you're out. You can train them just as easily as a dog - to come when called etc. But it's much tougher starting with an adult.
Here's a video of me learning and basically raising my first 2 rat babies - Benji and Oliver -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLZSkWJu9xo
When I had that down, I adopted Theo who was a rescue adult rat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeh7fkGS-_E
I would have struggled with him if I hadn't of had the time with Benji and Oliver first.
But Toby on the other hand was just a hunk of love and no issues at all. Theo had issues. Miles and Jackson had massive issues and I never fully won Jackson over. He never bit me, but he was always wary of me. He didn't like people and that was final. He put up with me! haha.